One of the things that he should consider pursuing is a medical school as part of NIT Rourkela, perhaps in collaboration with SAIL and/or the state government. In general, Prof. Sarangi should aim for expanding NIT Rourkela with additional programs, while also improving the existing ones.

Establishment of a School of Performing Arts with special thrust on Folk dance (Sambalpuri, Chhau, etc).

A program on Insurance and Risk Management

I also came across the following ad in today’s paper.

In general, Prof. Arun Pujari, the current VC of Sambalpur University (on-lien from University of Hyderabad, where he has been a Professor in Computer Science as well as a Dean), has made significant contributions to Sambalpur University in his short tenure; much more than any Odisha VC I know of in recent years. Unfortunately his 3-yr tenure is coming to an end in November and already this year none of the 3 VCs (Utkal U, Fakir Mohan U, and NOU) were reappointed.

I hope the Odisha Governor makes an exception and reappoints Prof. Pujari for another 3 year term so that he can stablize the various programs and centers that he initiated and established.

If that happens there is a high chance that the best two universities of Odisha will be in Sambalpur: VSSUT and Sambalpur University.

Jindal Steel and Power Limited( JSPL) would set up a medical college and power training college along with one vocational college in Odisha, said vice president and Managing Director of the JSPL Naveen Jindal.

Jindal who made a courtesy call on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik … At the same time, we want to be the partner in the development process and the progress of the State”, he said.

He informed that JSPL had plans to invest a whopping Rs.1.20 lakh crore in the State. Giving details of JSPLs investment proposals, he said that at the moment, a 6 MTPA steel plant was under construction and the plant would be upgraded to a mega steel cluster with the record steel production capacity of 20 MTPA , a first of its venture.in the world.

He said the construction of the proposed Angul integrated steel project with a captive power plant is progressing with a faster pace and would start production by August, 2011.

The captive power plant has already been commissioned, he said.

He reiterated that JSPL would set up its coal to liquid project at Angul, first of its kind in the country for which the Central Government has already given green signal with according coal block.

He said that his company proposed to put up a mega industrial park where, small industries would set up their units . The project would provide employment to around 25,000 people majority of whom would be locals, he said.

He has a pat for the local people of Angul and the State Government for extending cooperation in putting up the industrial projects.

He said as part of the corporate social responsibility, JSPL has taken steps to provide adequate compensation to the land losers and is taking steps to the capacity building of the local youth through training to increase their employability skills. To cater to the local needs, he said the company has decided to set up a vocational college and first power training college at Angul.

Besides, he said., JSPL has decided to put up a medical college and hospital at Angul along with a school to provide quality education. …

Earlier MCL had announced a medical college in Talcher. So now there will be two medical colleges in the Angul-Talcher area.

… In the last few years, nearly 125 private Plus-II science colleges have mushroomed in and around the city. Lured by their promise of helping students to crack the IIT entrance and other tough competitive exams, parents are ready to cough up whatever admission amount and fees they ask for.

… These completely residential colleges offer reasonably good infrastructure and a host of extra facilities like coaching for competitive exams, 24×7 teachers` guidance, Wi-Fi campus, air-conditioned classrooms, comfortable hostels and transportation services. The facilities, obviously, come at a price — these institutes charge at least 10 times more than government-run colleges.

"The reason for proliferation of self-financing colleges in the city is the lack of infrastructure, good teaching and extra facilities in government colleges. Students of state colleges have to depend on tuitions after college hours to complete their course; as a result, they don`t get much time for self-study. But in private residential colleges, they get enough time to study on their own," said Biranchi Panda, the president of Jupiter +2 Science College.

The principal of BJB Junior College, S N Mohanty, said, "New educational institutes are always welcome if their genuine purpose is to impart education. But most of these colleges are shops out to rake in profits. They are commercial establishments rather than educational institutes. Besides, there should be a law to regulate the fee structure and the profits of these colleges."

The fee for the two-year Plus-II course in self-financing, residential colleges ranges between Rs 75,000 a year to Rs 1.40 lakh a year, depending on the infrastructure and facilities. "It`s burning a hole in my pocket to pay the fees of my two daughters studying in two different residential colleges in the city. Before admission, these institutes make many promises but once the students join they realize they lack many things," said Prafulla Rout of Barbil.

Padmaja Naidu, the director of Naidu +2 Science College, said, "If you take the fee of a government college along with entrance exam coaching fees, it will be equal with the expense of studying in a private college. Parents want air-conditioned classrooms and refrigerators in hostels. And these facilities do not come for free."

However, many feel it is high time to run checks on self-financing colleges in the city. Many of these institutes are operating out of rented houses without quality teachers, laboratories, libraries and other infrastructure. Following allegations of manipulation of results at a well-known self-financing college, the government ordered a crime branch probe.

"The mushrooming of self-financing colleges is mainly due to the faulty policy of the state government. There must be checks in place at some point. The government is giving approval to colleges without properly verifying infrastructure and faculty positions. Due to this, many government colleges are suffering," said the principal of Newton +2 Science College, K C Mohanty.

R N Panda, the principal of Institute of Higher Secondary Education, said, "There are many genuine private colleges that are run by academicians although some of them are luring students with false promises. Private colleges have accountability and a healthy competition, which government institutes lack."

Himachal Government has raised the demand for setting up of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the State with the Government of India. …

Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh was poised to emerge a ‘Knowledge Hub’ where best of the vocational educational facilities would be available to the students from all over the world. He said that the IIT classes had already started at Mandi, NIFT classes at Chheb in district Kangra besides the Central University and soon ESI Medical College would start admission at Ner Chowk in district Mandi, Hotel Management Institute at Hamirpur and Food Craft Institute at Dharamshala.

… He said that vocational education was being given added priority since the State had 17 engineering colleges, one in Government and 16 in private sector; 30 polytechnics, nine in government and 21 in private sector and 81 industrial training institutes. He said that additionally 3 major nursing colleges had also been started in the State to give strength to the vocational education system.

Prof. Dhumal said that the State was encouraging private participation in imparting quality education to the students … He said that apart from 3 universities in the government sector 11 private universities had been set up in the state in addition to the one Technical University which too had started functioning. … He said that Rs. 62 crore were being spent over setting up of five polytechnics in Kinnaur, Sirmour, Bilaspur, Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti districts while Hydro Engineering College had been proposed to be opened at Bilaspur under joint venture of National Hydro Power Corporation and National Thermal Power Corporation. He added that the Institute of Engineering and Technology had also been set up at Pragatinagar with the assistance of Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam. … He said that Himachal Pradesh happens to be the first State, which was spending 18 percent of its budgetary provisions on education, highest in the country and similarly 12 percent of the budget had been earmarked for agriculture related activities. … He said that Bilaspur, Mandi, Chamba and Kullu districts would be new destinations for setting up of future universities in private sector.

Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies was established in 1987 vide the Govt. of Orissa Resolution dated the 16th April 1987 in consultation with Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, as an autonomous body under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860. Thus, the Centre has been jointly sponsored by the ICSSR and Govt. of Orissa and receives matching maintenance and development grants from them on 50:50 basis.

The Centre is situated in a prime institutional area, 6 Kms from the Bhubaneswar railway station, 10 Kms away from the Biju Patnaik International airport and 1.5 Kms away from the Jaydev Vihar Square on a very quiet and serene campus on 5 acres of land. It forms part of an institutional area covering Survey of India, IGNOU Regional Centre and Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) on the one side and the Fortune Tower and Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar on the other side of the main road leading towards Nandan Kanan, the famous Zoological Park at the outskirt of the city.

At present, although the Centre does not have a formal M.Phil/Ph.D. programme unlike other ICSSR institutes, the faculty have been given recognition by the Utkal University to guide doctoral research on different topics. … the faculty members of the Centre are preoccupied with guiding many doctoral dissertations. Many such researchers registered with the Centre’s faculty either as regular UGC/ICSSR JRFs (Junior Research Fellows) or as private Ph.D scholars, have been awarded with doctoral degrees in economics, sociology and social anthropology in the past and quite a few others are on the verge of getting their degrees from Utkal University. …

The Indian Council of Social Science Research allocates three institutional doctoral fellowships (two ordinary and one salary protected) to the Institute every year. The NCDS offers these fellowships in economics, sociology and social anthropology. The selected candidates are given fellowship @ Rs.6000/- p.m. and a contingency grant of Rs.12000/- p.a. for a period of two years, which may be extended by one more year.

Perhaps this committee had inside information on the new IIITs. If they are going to make only 6 of the proposed 20 now, Odisha (and Berhampur) need to pursue hard to be one of those early locations. So far I have come across news items regarding new IIITs in the following states. It is not clear if the central govt. selectively approached a subset of the proposed 20 (that includes these states) or if they approached all and only some of them went to the media.

It is clear that India needs a major boost to the quality of higher engineering education. Frontline research, cutting edge technology, innovation and entrepreneurship alongside teaching and mentoring are key ingredients of high- quality education. This is crucial in the context of our national development aspirations, growing economy with inclusive participation, creating opportunities for our youth and building our competitiveness in the emerging knowledge- driven global economy. The IITs are by far the only institutions which can lead this process on a scale commensurate with the needs of our country. The IITs can also help several other higher engineering education institutions, particularly those with the potential to further catalyse this process and enhance our national capability towards this objective.

The transformation of IITs into institutions that meet such an objective would mean that the IITs have a talent pool comparable with the best in the world with capability to liberally support their creativity to realize the fullest potential. It also presupposes that the IITs have a flexible governance system that can innovate management support that is specific to the needs of taking new ideas and initiatives forward. Such an environment also attracts external talent and ideas.

The IITs thus need to further enlarge and strengthen themselves as major research institutions with focus on the development of high capability human resource. This inevitably would mean considerable scale up, particularly in terms of PhD programmes. It is necessary to calibrate this process in a manner that leads to sustained augmentation of quality. The IITs are presently under considerable strain on account of rapid expansion with considerable difficulties and backlog in terms of faculty recruitment and augmentation of infrastructure. Bridging the gap between the present state and the end objective with respect to the IITs has to be a sustained long process spanning 10–15 years with most additional faculty strength inevitably coming from IIT PhDs since there are few other sources of high quality engineering PhDs within the country. Even the most aggressive recruitment of PhDs from foreign universities, which must be pursued vigorously, is unlikely to be adequate to meet domestic needs in time.

The IITs have distinguished themselves for the quality of their B.Tech degrees. IIT’s brand image is primarily due to the very distinguished performance of its B.Tech students. A distinctive feature of the IIT B.Tech programme is its co- existence with an equally large postgraduate teaching and research domains. Certain parameters of this successful programme, such as a nearly equal UG : PG proportion and student : faculty ratio of 10:1, have stood the test of time and should be preserved.

Apart from the large-scale need for high quality engineering graduates to meet the needs of various segments of demand for them, there is also the need for high performing engineering graduates to be a feed into the postgraduate programme, more particularly the PhD programme. The number of B.Techs graduating from the IITs is unlikely to be adequate for this purpose. While intense efforts have been proposed to attract IIT B.Techs into PhD programme, it is also necessary to focus on other engineering education institutions of good quality (in particular the NITs, ISERs, etc.) to become feeders for quality graduate engineers into PhD programmes of IITs.
To support a significantly expanded and high-quality PhD programme, the research infrastructure at the IITs needs considerable augmentation. While doing so, the research has to be broad-based to cover various dimensions like research on the frontiers; coordinated research involving several groups to address major areas of national priority, research to meet the needs of industry and the society, participation in the R&D needs of industry and of Government, etc. This would create holistic learning opportunities for students by exposing them to realistic hands-on experience and at the same time bringing significant resources into the IITs over a period of time.

Such an environment needs to be richly endowed and liberally supported. More important, it should have its own governance structure that can flexibly address the needs in specific cases without being constrained by the inflexibilities of governmental working. This is a prerequisite for attracting and retaining talent, which is at the core of the performance of such institutions.

It is proposed that the IITs be financially supported by the Government through plan budget to meet their infrastructure needs as well as the research needs of the Government. Research students, both at the masters and doctoral levels, should also be supported by the Government on a per student basis. The IITs should recover the full operational cost of education through fees and not derive any input through non-plan budget of the Government. A special and hassle-free bank loan arrangement has been recommended as part of the admission process to support and facilitate access to all eligible and deserving students.

We feel that it should be possible to make the IITs administratively and financially autonomous to realize the objectives enumerated above and reach the full potential of the IIT system. Key recommendations being made by the Committee include (i) self-empowered Boards comprising all key stakeholders, (ii) creating a system of mandatory peer reviews, (iii) mutually agreed respective commitments between the Government and IIT on the basis of an annual MoU duly overseen by the IIT Council, and (iv) transparency in working. The Government’s commitment to support research at the IITs to their maximum potential is an important assumption that forms the basis of the Committee’s recommendations. The Committee also feels that all the recommendations should be considered as part of a single package and accepted or rejected as a whole, and not treated in parts.

The specific recommendations of the Committee are given below:

IITs as Research Institutions

1. Make IITs the Primary Research Institutes, with a focus on high quality frontier research and technology development within the Indian context.

2. Scale up PhD students from less than 1000 PhD graduates per year today to 10,000 PhD graduates by 2020-25 from about 20 IITs (15 existing IITs plus 5 new to be set up over the next several years in states where there are no IITs).

3. Scaling PhD scholars’ admissions to include enabling bright UGs being admitted for PhD at the end of their third year, teachers from other institutes joining for PhD and significant numbers from industry joining sponsored/part-time PhD programme. It is strongly recommended that a fellowship scheme covering all categories of PhD students is in place.

4. The faculty: student ratio is 1:10; while the UG : PG ratio is close to 1:1.

5. Each IIT should aim to acquire technology leadership in at least 3 to 4 areas.

6. Research groups in one or more IITs to take up large projects together to address major national challenges

7. Set up research parks at each of the IITs similar to the IIT-M Research Park.

8. Enable Ministries to set up R&D labs in IITs to drive Technology Development relevant to national programmes being piloted by them.

10. Government to financially support research at the IITs in the plan mode to realize their full potential for national needs in terms of research, technology and human resource in science, technology and entrepreneurship. For this purpose an annual outlay on the basis of Rs 1.5 lakhs per student should be made available to each of the established IITs. For the new IITs which are at present in project mode and do not have any significant endowment, an endowment grant of Rs. 50 crore per IIT (over next 5 years) may be made available to enable a degree of flexibility in academic activities.

The IITs need to expand infrastructure to support a scaled up academic and research programme as recommended above. This would also require capital funds for infrastructure expansion from the Government at Rs. 20 lakh per additional student. There is also a need to rejuvenate the existing ageing infrastructure at Rs. 5 lakh per student as existing on March 2011. Funds allotted for expansion taking place currently to accommodate OSC recommendations have been found to be inadequate and need to be increased to Rs 15 lakh per student.

11. MHRD to pay the full operating cost of education plus a scholarship for all postgraduate students (PhD, MS and M.Tech) as well as for undergraduate students from reserved category and economically weaker sections. Some merit-cum-means scholarship should also be made available to needy and deserving students. A hassle free loan facility not requiring any collateral or parental guarantee to be made a part of the admission process. No student should be denied education in an IIT after getting admission due to lack of means.

12. Except for legacy payments like old pension, the IITs are to be financially independent of the non-plan budget of the Government. Fees are to be fixed at a level to cover operational expenditure.

13. IITs are to be totally independent of MHRD for their governance and management functions. They are to be run by their Boards with all rules and regulations made by their Boards. This includes management structure, rules and regulations for faculty/staff hiring and remuneration, approving of budgets and fixing fees, expenditure rules and processes and audit processes. C&AG audit to continue based on financial rules formulated by the Boards.

14. IITs need to enhance their financial inputs through donations. The donor should be eligible for a full deduction of their contribution against their income under the Income Tax Act as is currently allowed for any grants made to Universities in India under Sec 35AC of the Income Tax Act 1961. A notification or an amendment is essential in the law to include IITs in this list.

15. IIT Boards will select and appoint a Director using a search committee process. IIT Boards will nominate the Chairman to be appointed after approval of the IIT Council.

16. The Board will consist of one representative from the Central government, one from the state government, three industry persons selected from a panel recommended by the Chairmen of CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and NASSCOM (in a joint meeting), three scientists selected from a panel recommended by four Indian Academy Presidents (INSA, NASI, INAE, IASC) (in a joint meeting), two alumni (who are not IIT employees), two faculty from the institute, one eminent citizen appointed by the Board, the Chairman and the Director. The panels recommended by industry association Chairmen and Presidents of Academy will need approval of the IIT Council.

17. The IITs will sign a MoU with MHRD every year in line with the aims and policies of the Government of India. The MoU should include budgets and fees approved by its Board, capital expenditure (plan money), pension money and scholarships that MHRD would provide and expansion needs (if any). It would also include aims and goals set by the IIT for the year. The MoU would need to be reviewed and approved by the IIT Council.

18. The Visitor may require the IIT Council to appoint an external review committee for each IIT once in 5 years. The report of the review committee and action taken is to be made public. The Government may require the IITs to take appropriate action in light of the findings of the review committee.

19. The emergency powers of the Visitor over the IITs are to continue.
Faculty

20. Scaling up of quality faculty is the key. It is required to scale up to 16,000 faculty members in about 10 years (from a little over 4000 currently).

21. Part-time/Adjunct faculty from industry, visiting faculty and post-doctoral in IITs to be strengthened. 22. Faculty pay-scales and remuneration is to be decided by the respective Boards. Pay-scales have to be decided within the financial constraints of the institute.

23. The Board of each IIT will decide on the roles, responsibilities and appraisal of their faculty. Faculty roles include teaching, research, technology development and industrial consultancy, as well as policy/standards development. Besides, they may be involved in administration. It is suggested that each faculty sets their yearly goals and the time they would spend in these 5 activities. At the end of each year, they would carry out a self-appraisal and provide evidence of their work. Departmental committees will review the appraisals for Assistant Professors and an institute-level committee will review the appraisals for others. Once in 5 years, an external review of these appraisals will be carried out.

24. Today, the IITs and their faculty do not have the experience and expertise to take into account the “technological development and industrial consultancy roles” played by the faculty during their appraisals and evaluation. This needs to be strengthened.

Role of Staff

25. The IIT Boards will decide on staff numbers, remuneration and pay-scales.

26. It is suggested that most staff members be hired as outsourced staff on contract. Young staff members who start their career at the IITs and work for there 5–10 years would be well trained to be absorbed in industry. This
way the IITs would get young motivated staff members. Innovation and Entrepreneurship

27. The IITs must recognize that technology development, innovation and nurturing entrepreneurship are some of their key tasks.

28. The IITs must also recognize that Innovation thrives when faculty, experienced industry persons and students interact in formal and informal environments. The creation of such an ecosystem is a necessity.

29. The B.Tech and M.Tech Curriculum is very structured and does not allow creative students to do courses across departments, take off for a semester for a start-up venture and come back or take up some project work instead of a course. The curriculum is designed for large numbers of ordinary students and not for exceptional students. This needs correction. Similarly, the IITs do not easily allow students of one branch to do MS/PhD in another. Even while hiring faculty, they look for B.Techs only in the discipline they are to teach. The system needs to adopt greater flexibility to provide greater choice to students so that they are better prepared for a chosen career option.

30. IIT faculty members have poor commercial understanding. This comes in the way of technology development or innovation. Greater interaction with industry in the product development mode should be adopted.

31. Entrepreneurship is not about space or computers; it requires nurturing a business. Only faculty who understand this should drive entrepreneurship cells.

Scaling Engineering Education with Quality in India

32. India, with its billion people, has huge demand for quality engineering education. Unfortunately, even though more than a million students are admitted to engineering colleges today, except for the IITs and some other institutions, the quality of education in most other engineering colleges is not of the desired quality. The Committee recommends a plan to create at least 100,000 quality engineering graduates per year through Central government-funded institutions alone. Hopefully, the state governments and private efforts would add to this significantly.

33. The Committee recommends identification/creation of 50 Central government-funded institutions (other than the 20 IITs) which could be nurtured with the help of young IIT faculty. These would include NITs, ISERs, NISER, IIIT and certain other institutions. This would be done through 5 enthusiastic young faculty members with a proven level of excellence for each such institution, who would be identified in consultation with the Director and Chairman of the Board of Governors for induction in the Board and Senate of these institutions. They would be tasked with driving excellence in these institutions by leveraging the IITs. An outlay of Rs. 50 lakh each should be made available to such faculty to support research in the institute with IIT collaboration.

34. With their advent at a historic cusp in the evolution of technical education in India, the new IITs present a unique opportunity for a major upward movement in the IIT system. Without the legacy of many decades of established tradition, a new IIT can boldly experiment with radically new ways of teaching, research and administration. In teaching, the shortage of experienced faculty could be turned into a benefit by judicious use of multimedia and networking technologies to augment the classroom experience. In research, apart from setting up state-of-the-art facilities, the new IITs can build collaborative relationships with like-minded institutions around the world. (Also see Appendix VII.)

In the established IITs, the Directors and Board spend much of their time and energy dealing with vexatious issues such as service conditions of long- time staff. This distracts from their ability to spend quality time on academic innovations and impact. The new IITs could devise administrative and staffing structures that avoid these vexatious issues.

The Board, the Director and the faculty of the new IITs should be selected for their openness to new ideas and should be encouraged to experiment with teaching, research and administration.

The new IITs have a unique potential to catalyse the transformation of the IIT system. Hence, they need special treatment to ensure that they realize this potential by building on the strengths of the IIT system while avoiding its weaknesses.

The report is available at http://www.education.nic.in/tech/KakodkarCommitteeReport-05132011.pdf. Thanks to Devasis Sarangi for the pointer. The members of this committee were: Anil Kakodkar (Chair), T. V. Mohandas Pai, Hari Bhartia, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, K. Mohandas, Ashok Thakur, M. Anandakrishnan, Gautam Barua, T. A. Gonsalves, K. Sudhakar and S. Ramesh Babu. Following are excerpts from the executive summary of the report.

A committee was constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) vide its order F.NO.19-3/2009-TS 1 of 3 February 2010 to suggest a roadmap for the autonomy and future of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as world-class institutions for research and higher learning.

… We should be in the forefront to meet the growing human needs with minimum use of earth resources in a manner that keeps the environment around us protected. We need to nurture a large science and technology (S&T) based innovation ecosystem that creates solutions for India’s inclusive development and economic growth. The creation of a large pool of researchers (with PhD) commensurate with the size of our population and economy as well as our aspirations, is a key necessity for the realization of these objectives.

… In terms of research, the IITs are continuously enhancing their research activities as evidenced by the increasing number of PhDs coming out of the IIT system. In fact, most PhDs in engineering in the country are now coming from the IITs. Even so, the number of PhDs that come out annually from the IITs is very small (about 1000 per year) in comparison to the size of our country, size of our economy and number of youth in the country. Further, only about 1% of IIT B.Techs do PhD at the IITs. … The IITs, being the largest system for high-level engineering R&D and human resource development in an ambience of high-level research, have thus to take on the challenge of creating an advanced research-based innovation ecosystem that, on a national scale, is large enough to make a significant positive difference. For this purpose, while the scale of high-level research at the IITs needs to be considerably enhanced and broad based with the involvement of industry and national technology related programmes, the IITs should also contribute in a significant way to the research and development capability and culture in the country at large (by creating a large pool of PhD graduates). If one looks around the world, most of the best technology institutions in the world have 15,000+ students as opposed to 6000+ currently at each of the established IITs. USA and China produce around 8000–9000 PhDs in engineering and technology annually while in India the corresponding number presently is around 1000. With this background, and considering the large gap that we have to bridge in realizing our development aspirations, we need a large-scale increase in the number of PhDs coming out from the IITs. The Committee has therefore suggested that each IIT should progressively grow to have around 1200 faculty (from around 500 today) and closer to 12,000 students with maximum growth coming from an enhanced number of PhD students. While the established IITs could aim at reaching this scale up in about 10 years from now, the newer IITs could take longer. Further, the Committee has suggested setting up of 5 more IITs over this period of time. Thus, the Committee has recommended the number of IIT PhD graduates per year to be scaled up to 10,000, while continuously enhancing quality.

… The Committee has suggested a minimum of 0.6 PhDs per faculty annually, eventually reaching 1 PhD per faculty. On this basis, the Committee has suggested that we should aim at scaling the IIT system to 16,000 faculty and 160,000 total student strength (with 40,000 at the PhD level, 40,000 at the Masters level and 80,000 UG students) by around the year 2020. Each year, then, the IIT system will admit 10,000 PhDs.

…Finding faculty in adequate numbers to meet the needs of OSC expansion as well as new IITs has in itself been a major challenge. Coping with faculty needs for scaling up the PhD programme to the above-mentioned level would thus have to primarily depend on the PhD programme at the IITs itself.

Feeders to such a large PhD programme in the form of bright engineering graduates have to be of a size commensurate with the requirements. While students with a Masters degree and, to some extent B.Tech students, of IITs would constitute an important channel (all efforts must be made to attract them into the IIT PG stream), one would need to tap other channels to get quality students in adequate numbers. The Committee has therefore suggested engagement of IITs with other good quality engineering and science education institutions, particularly those of the Central government like NITs, IIITs and IISERs, with a view to enlarge the pool for selection of quality students and also attract their faculty into the PhD programme. The Committee has also suggested special efforts be made to identify and pick up bright 3rd year students of IITs, NITs and such other such public or private institutions and to initiate them into the PhD programme. Further, the Committee has suggested an augmented intake of PhD students from industry and the engineering education system in the country. IITs being at the top of engineering education in the country should act as an inspiration to raise the level of engineering education in other public and private institutions. This would result in enrichment of these institutions, which is long overdue. Of course, for all this to happen, the IITs would have to aggressively pursue candidates from these different streams to join their PhD programme. To support such a large number of PhD students (40,000 at a time) with challenging and meaningful research problems would require comprehensive augmentation of research facilities and infrastructure. The Committee has proposed significant augmentation/addition in the following four domains. This would be over and above the current mode of support through various research funding agencies for individual proposals submitted to them by the faculty.

1. Identify 3–4 areas of recognized strength involving a reasonable faculty strength at each IIT and support them massively to become the world’s best. Selection of such areas should be done on the basis of demonstrated high-level capability.

2. Take up large coordinated research projects involving a number of groups from different disciplines (from same or different IITs) to address important national challenges/other grand challenges with specific pre-defined deliverables.

3. Establish research parks with significant industry presence at each IIT on the lines of a research park established at IIT Madras, to enable industry–academia collaborations and build a Research and Innovation ecosystem.

4. Establish special laboratories of government ministries/their Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) at IITs to strengthen indigenous capability in key areas of national importance. It is expected that such augmentation of research infrastructure in the IITs would create useful linkages between them and the external world, thus making research at IIT more meaningful. More importantly, this would lead to a broad-based innovation ecosystem of which IIT students and faculty will be an integral part.

World-class institutions are characterized by the existence of a large high quality talent pool (faculty, students and visiting researchers), vibrant academic and research linkages with external better quality institutions, availability of liberal resources and a flexible and conducive governance system that can recognize and selectively support credible new ideas in a hassle-free manner. Funding and autonomy of the IITs are thus key areas that need serious attention.

Towards enhancing autonomy that would provide the IITs the necessary flexibility to support and deal with a new idea or take a new initiative and lead them towards world-class excellence, it is proposed that each Institute be fully governed by its Board of Governors (BoG), including aspects like financial planning and expenditure rules, faculty remuneration, fees and number of faculty and staff, within the overall policy guidelines of the IIT Council in terms of expectations from IITs as world-class institutions, affirmative actions, technology directions and human resource development. The composition of the Board would enable representation of all stakeholders. The Committee has suggested that the Board should have one representative each from MHRD and the state governments. Other members could be selected from panels (duly approved by the IIT Council) prepared by S&T academies and Industry associations; also the alumni and faculty would also be represented. The Board will select the Chairperson following a due process and appoint him/her after approval by the Council. A search committee appointed by the Board would select the Director for approval and appointment by the Board. Selection of the next set of members to replace those retiring, would be done by a nomination committee of the Board and approved by the Board. Each institute would subject itself to a comprehensive institution review by an internationally eminent group once every 5 years. Such reviews which will be overseen by the IIT Council, will have focus on quality, programmes, their direction and size, working of the institutions and suggestions for change, including new initiatives. These review reports shall be made public. Further, there will be an annual MoU between the Government and each IIT, with the Council’s oversight and guidance. Such MoUs would include commitments, responsibilities and deliverables on both sides (Government and IIT). The Visitor would retain emergency powers as at present.

… Attracting the best faculty to the IITs is thus of crucial importance. This would require a strong academic, research and innovation culture and a conducive and transparent organization that nurtures excellence. It has to be driven by the Director and faculty and there should be additional attractions like significant start-up funds that would enable researchers get on with their research from day one. The BoG should have the flexibility to decide on faculty remuneration. It is proposed that there should be a system of faculty assessment in terms of several parameters like teaching, research, technology development and industrial consultancy, policy research and service with differentiated faculty remuneration based on performance-based assessment. At the same time, a tenure system for faculty needs to be examined. The Committee has also suggested the need to enable and encourage some mid-career faculty from the established IITs to shift to newer IITs and for overseas faculty to join IIT.

Institutions like IITs that are devoted to growth in the knowledge, technology and innovation domains and related human capital development, should be seen as asset builders for the nation in the modern knowledge-driven economy. The Committee has thus suggested that IITs be made independent of non-plan (operational) support from the Government for their operational expenditure while at the same time seeking greater plan (capital) support to enhance research in a comprehensive manner, as outlined above. The objective of realizing autonomy would be facilitated by de-linking IIT finances with non-plan support of the Government. The enhanced plan support to IITs would have three components: (i) Student support at postgraduate and research level on a per student basis through scholarships, (ii) research support aimed at pushing the frontiers of knowledge and innovation and (iii) massive augmentation of infrastructure to support larger numbers of students.

It is proposed that the fee charged by the IITs should cover the full operational cost of education, which works out to be roughly 30% of the total current cost of education. A hassle- free bank loan scheme specific to IIT students has been proposed. No collateral would be required. This would enable access to all eligible and deserving students. Further, it has been proposed that MHRD should fully provide for fees and living expenses as per currently prevalent norms at IITs for all research students (PG) as well as UG students from weaker sections. In addition, all students whose parental income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh per annum (to be revised from time to time), should be paid scholarships covering 100% fees, and a monthly stipend.Incentives in the form of deferment of loans for students entering postgraduate education and research and proportionate repayment of loan for students joining as faculty and researchers into programmes at IITs and other areas identified by the Government, have been proposed. The Committee has also recommended that all government ministries should provide a minimum of 20% overheads without ceiling on the R&D projects sanctioned to IITs. This is necessary to avoid strain on institute resources as they undertake enlarged R&D activities. Most US universities charge overheads to the tune of 50%. Industrial consultancy and royalty, alumni and industrial grants/donations and continuing education programmes, including executive M.Tech programmes, would be some other modes for enhancing IIT finances. It is expected that IIT resources through non-governmental sources would further improve in a significant way once the IITs acquire financial autonomy.

With this background, the Committee has suggested that the tuition fees should be between Rs 2–2.5 lakh per year per student. This would be reasonable considering the high demand for IIT graduates and the salary that an IIT B.Tech is expected to get. There is a legacy commitment in the form of retirement benefits under the old pension scheme (to the tune of around Rs 221 crore for all IITs in 2010). This should be continued to be paid by the Government till the end of the scheme.

To support research at IITs, MHRD should provide plan funds at Rs 1.5 lakh per student annually. The newer IITs do not have any significant endowment funds at present. Hence, Rs 50 crore as seed endowment over the next 5 years has been proposed for each new IIT.

On the capital investment front, the Government should support an Expansion Budget at Rs 20 lakh per additional student. In addition, a sum of Rs 5 lakh per student would be required in the established IITs for regeneration of ageing infrastructure. It is also assessed that for OSC- related expansion costs, Rs 15 lakh per student should be provided as Rs 10 lakh per student provided presently has been found to be inadequate. The IITs must nurture an ambience of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to make India a world leader in the present-day knowledge economy. In order to achieve this, we should have substantially enhanced Industrial collaboration with a focus on technology development in the Indian context. A strong industry–academia relationship is of key importance. Initially, there needs to be significant give and take on both sides. But this will make a significant difference to teaching and research at the IITs and will train IIT graduates to take India to a leadership position. One should also encourage industry R&D personnel to become adjunct faculty and enable large numbers of industry persons to do PhD. Research Parks create the right ecosystem to bring students, faculty and industry R&D personnel together. It is proposed that Rs 200 crore be provided for setting up a Research Park on the lines of the IIT Madras Research Park at each IIT. The IITs need to learn that success in entrepreneurship often comes only after multiple failures and substantial benefits accrue only if R&D is pursued over long periods. We need to create a value system that takes these factors into account. IITs have to make special efforts to learn to evaluate faculty focusing on product development. Outsourcing of support activities to the maximum extent possible has been strongly recommended. IITs should strive to minimize the number of regular employees for non- technical support functions. All decisions with regard to staff, including numbers and remuneration, should be decided by the BoG. Most scientific staff is proposed to be on project mode, with flexibility of salaries for temporary staff. The technical staff could be in-sourced wherever possible. Here, the use of PhD students as teaching assistants would be of help. On the administration side, maximum possible computerization of functions has been recommended to reduce the requirement of administrative staff. Hiring of some professional mid-career staff could be considered to make the administration more efficient. They should be observed for their performance for a few years before they are regularized. Scaling up engineering education with quality would ensure availability of quality human resource for meeting India’s needs. It will also be an excellent feeder pool to critical areas as well as into the PhD programmes. Seventy Centrally funded institutions (including IITs) should therefore graduate 100,000 high quality engineers every year. While the share of 20 IITs could be 20,000 B.Techs, the 50 other institutions should plan to graduate 80,000 graduates every year in about 10 years from now. Hopefully, state governments and private institutions could create additionally at least 200,000 quality seats. This will create a reasonable sized science and engineering pool for India’s future.

As a part of IITs’ engagement in this process, each of the 50 Centrally funded science and engineering institutions (like NITs, IIITs, IISER, NISER) could select 5 bright young (aged around 35 years) faculty members from the IIT system and invite them to be a member of their BoG and Senate. They could be tasked to build a relationship with the concerned IIT department and young faculty at the Institute to enable and enhance research collaboration (Rs 50 lakh to be identified for each faculty for this purpose) between the institute and the IITs. They would encourage B.Techs to join PhD programmes at the IITs and, if necessary, get faculty to do PhDs at the IITs. Similarly, they could get some IIT PhDs to join the institute as faculty. It is expected that each faculty spends at least 15 days a year at the institute. One of the consequences of this strategy would also be that young IIT faculty would be trained to be future leaders. In a similar manner, 3 young persons from industry could be identified by each NIT. They could be similarly invited to the Board and be tasked with similar goals.

Amendments to the IIT Act would be necessary to give effect to the above-mentioned recommendations.

Details are given in the report. We strongly suggest that the recommendations of the Committee should be treated as a whole to realize the intended objective. It is also recommended that an empowered Implementation committee should be tasked for implementation of these recommendations and to facilitate transition to the new framework for IITs.

Regional Plant Resource Centre was established in 1985 as a recreational garden and with an aim to provide a green lung for the inhabitants of Bhubaneswar – the capital city of Orissa. Gradually it became a dynamic and vibrant research organization of the State Government with a focus on the conservation of plant biodiversity. Over the year, it has made significant contributions in the field of ex situ and in situ conservation and assessment of genetic diversity of various groups of plants and its related aspects. With strengthening of scientific manpower and laboratory facilities, it expanded its areas of research which witnessed large outputs in terms of analysis of genetic assessment of plant groups through cyto-taxonomic and molecular techniques.

Following is its organizational set up.

Following is its recent ad. for 13 principal scientist, senior scientist and scientist positions.

… Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai on May 6 announced its own plans to expand operations to Gurgaon and Orissa in addition to its earlier takeover of Mumbai Business School.

… The Great Lakes-Educomp partnership will also build a business education-oriented university in Orissa, tentatively named ‘University of Corporate Excellence’. Once the university kicks off, Great Lakes would have had spread its presence in all four corners of the country, says Prof Balachandran. While Great Lakes – Chennai has built a strength around marketing, IEMR will focus on the energy sector and MBS on emerging markets.

Educomp’s Rs 150 crore investment is part cash and part infrastructure and technology, such as its e-learning platform which will be powered using Great Lakes content to offer distance learning.